Communications

Pursuant to the Massachusetts Public Records Law, M.G.L. c.66, §10, I hereby request the following records:

1. All emails pertaining to Upham Street and/or Howard Street that were sent to or by Mayor Robert Dolan, Chief of Staff Michael Lindstrom, police Chief Michael Lyle, police Lt. Mark Decroteau, Sgt. Jon Goc, DPW Director John Scenna and City Engineer Elena Proakis-Ellis between March 1, 2017 and August 15, 2017;

I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as we believe this request is in the public interest, as suggested but not stipulated by the recommendations of the Massachusetts Supervisor of Public Records. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request be filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 business days, as the statute requires.

Regarding the above referenced request, please see below the good faith estimate regarding copies of emails and the hourly rate it took to gather all this information together.

Estimated fee for copies $126.05 Estimated Hourly rate fee $450.00

If you want to proceed with this request, please let my office know. I won't be in the office on Friday, August 25th, so please let the City Clerk, Mary-Rita O'Shea (moshea@cityofmelrose.org<mailto:moshea@cityofmelrose.org>) know your decision.

Thank you for your attention to this request.

Susan

Susan E. KrascoAsst. City ClerkJustice of the PeaceCity of Melrose562 Main StreetMelrose, MA 02176781.979.4113Fax. 781.979.4149

Thank you for your response. Can you provide the basis for the fee estimate? The public records law allows Melrose to charge 5 cents per copy, which would suggest the city believes it will provide 2,500 pages of paper documents despite the fact that I sought electronic copies. In addition, the labor estimate suggests employees will spend approximately 20 hours working on the request.

Below, I will break down the estimated cost as best I can. I have eliminated the cost for some copies because I will be sending them electronically, but the City will be charging for Chief Lyle’s and Elena Proakis Ellis’s copies because the files are either too big or too old to scan and not in good condition. The City chooses not to wave the hourly rate. We cannot charge for the first 2 hrs. in each department according to the law, but anything after that, we will be charging $25.00 per hour.

Regarding Chief Lyle’s fee and Elena Proakis’s fee; I gave you the hours that they gave me. Chief Lyle told me he had to do a lot of research; going through a lot of material. It could be that Ms. Proakis was able to locate her emails faster and easier. Also, I didn’t have everyone’s total the first time I sent you an estimate and that’s why the estimate changed. I’m still waiting to hear from Mr. Scenna regarding how many emails and corresponded he has. He’s still working on this, so the estimate could change again; I won’t know until I hear from Mr. Scenna. I explained in the last email that Chief Lyle and Ms. Proakis’s email files were too big to send electronically according to them. It’s very time consuming, especially when everyone is trying to do their jobs. It takes a lot of time to gather this information; especially with multiple people working on this. With that being said, I need to know if you are willing to pay the fee before the City goes any further.

Sincerely,

Susan

Susan E. KrascoAsst. City ClerkJustice of the PeaceCity of Melrose562 Main StreetMelrose, MA 02176781.979.4113Fax. 781.979.4149

I may be willing to pay applicable fees to the extent they may be charged. However, based on your response, the basis for the charges is unclear and they do not seem appropriate.

Copying fees may not be charged for electronic documents. A municipality may not convert an electronic document to paper form for the purposes of charging a fee. If the aggregate size of responsive email files is too large to transmit by email, the city can place it on a CD and mail it. But there does not seem to be a valid reason for charging hundreds of dollars in copying fees when the majority of responsive records appear to be electronic.

Furthermore, municipalities cannot charge for time spent segregating or redacting records unless suchsegregation or redaction is required by law. See G. L. c. 66, 5 10(d)(iii); 950 CMR 32.06(4). In order to require prepayment for the time segregating and redacting records, the municipality must demonstrate that segregation or redaction will be required by law. Thus far, the city hasn't made the required demonstration.

Finally, as I explained previously, the labor estimate to process records of Chief Lyle doesn't sense when the estimate for records of Elena Proakis Ellis is for half as much and time with twice as many records.

I would appreciate it if you would revise your fee estimate to include the following:

1. copying charges only for documents that currently exist in paper form, and2. labor charges that reflect the time it is expected to take to locate the requested records and, only to the extent required by law, segregate or redact certain information.

Finally, since the city has declined to charge any fees to provide records Lt. Decroteau, Mayor Dolan and Michael Lindstrom, I would appreciate it if you would provide me those records at your earliest convenience.

I am happy to send you copies of those records from Mayor Robert Dolan, Mike Lindstrom and Lt. Mark DeCroteau. As to the remainder of your request, I have spoken to the Melrose City Solicitor and he is going to work with Chief Lyle and City Engineer Elena Proakis to determine whether there is an alternative way these records can be produced in a more cost effective, less labor intensive manner. I am waiting on Mr. Scenna’s emails, and will contact you as soon as I have received them.

As you are aware, the Public Records Law does not allow a municipality to charge for the first two hours of time, but any time above that can be assessed at $25.00 per hour. The law is clear that this fee can include (above the first two hours) time spent searching for, compiling, segregating, redacting and reproducing a requested record. The records that are not capable of being produced to you electronically are – by law – assessed at 5 cents per page.

At this point, and in order to complete your request as quickly as possible, I would ask you to direct all further communication to the City Solicitor, Robert Van Campen, as he should be able to assist in refining – if necessary – the fee estimate that has already been provided. He can be reached at 781-979-4183 or by email at rvancampen@cityofmelrose.org<mailto:rvancampen@cityofmelrose.org>.